Insertponceyfrenchnamehere's blog

Posted by airyfairy on Fri, 02 Jul 2021 Great to see that even with the easing of lockdown and the various sporting distractions going on, ABC Talers have still managed to find the time to post some brilliant work. Story of the Week is 'First Last Friday' by ice rivers. Like many of the best stories, it's deceptively simple. It's one of those pieces where nothing and everything happen at the same time. The ending might be heartbreaking, or it...

Story and Poem of the Week chosen by Ewan. I’m sure this gets harder every week. Or at least harder every time it's my turn. Story of the Week goes to Penny4athought’s continuing series “Willow’s Tail 11” https://www.abctales.com/story/penny4athought/willows-tail-11 the rest of it is here. https://www.abctales.com/collection/willows-tail Poem of the Week, against some fierce competiton, is Deliberately Evolving’s tribute to a much-missed member...

Some really wonderful stories and poems to choose from this week - thank you so much for posting them! Story of the Week goes to poetjude for First Visit which has stayed with me since I first read it, and Poem of the Week goes to onemorething's wonderful prose poem Garden At Dawn: https://www.abctales.com/story/poetjude/first-visit https://www.abctales.com/story/onemorething/garden-dawn Very honourable mentions to skinner_jennifer for her...

Story and Poem of the Month for May have very kindly been chosen by hudsonmoon: “It's May, it's May, the month of yes you may The time for every frivolous whim, proper or im It's wild, it's gay, a blot in every way The birds and bees with all of their vast amorous past Gaze at the human race aghast” So say Lerner and Lowe in Camelot. What do I say? I say you bunch make it difficult to make an easy decision when it comes to doing the monthly pick...

Posted by airyfairy on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 Two more wonderful pieces for our Picks this week. Story of the Week goes to Terrence Oblong's 'The Word Police'. Funny, surreal, and yet so very, very familiar to those of us attempting to extract inspiration from our little grey cells and get something, anything, on the page: The Word Police | ABCtales Poem of the Week is bhi's beautiful 'In the shadow of geraniums'. A vivid, thought-provoking piece full...

I've been sent this by Leamington Books which is run by an old ABCTaler who's very kindly agreed to do a little question and answer session for us as a fundraiser soon. They seem like a really lovely company, so if anyone has a novella knocking around, get submitting! Submissions of Novellas From June 1st 2021 we are accepting submissions of novellas. Our minimum length for this submission is 7,000 words, although ideally a novella will be 20,...

Once again, It's my pleasure to announce the publication of ABCTales writer Colin Burnett's debut short story collection. Here's a review by Celticman: I bought a copy of A Working Class State of Mind because I like Colin Burnett’s writing. I’m an editor on ABCtales and some of his fiction appeared online. Most of the other editors are English. Whisper it, we’ve even got an American. But he recognised the moron’s moron Trump as the narcissistic...

I'm delighted to announce the publication of yet another ABCTaler's debut novel: The Blue Hour by M.J. Greenwood, who writes on ABCTales as MJG Here's a review by airyfairy: The Blue Hour by M J Greenwood M J Greenwood’s debut novel contains many elements of a traditional romance, but it isn’t simply a ‘love story’. This is a story about love, and that’s a very different thing. In 1944 Tilly Barwise, a feisty and beautiful working-class teenager...

Call for Entries: New Talent Aesthetica Creative Writing Award 2021 We are looking for new writing talent and we want to make sure as many writers know about the opportunities with the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award as possible. The Aesthetica Creative Writing Award is an outlet for expression and just one way to keep connected with the world. We are looking for Poetry and Short Fiction entries. The award is supported by some of the biggest...

This weeks picks are from Ewan. I find this task gets harder and harder over time. The standard is set ever higher by all of you. That’s what makes it difficult. This week’s Story of the Week is Rosalie Kempthorne’s “Bobby-Joe-George”. Always adept at allowing the reader to fill in the blanks, the spaces between the lines and the story that isn’t on the page or screen, but is in the writer’s mind. If that sounds pretentious, I haven’t expressed...